My experience differs here. The Jolida is very nice player for its price, but if you have the money, spending more of it can get you proportionally more sound. There are a lot of better players and transport/dac combos out there then the Jolida JD100 to look into before settling down, yet the Jolida is worth a try in your system to see if it fits your tastes.
Personally, to my ears, no matter what tube I tried in the JD100 it couldn't touch my external dacs I had on hand to shootout with in terms of openness, midrange clarity, top end extension and air, bass articulation and transparency. The Jolida also gave me a headache with exteneded listening. I listen primarly to sultry, airy and angelic female vocalists and found the Jolida to do a poor job with them, which ultimately was the dealbreaker for me. It's a fine player with many good qualities, don't get me wrong, perhaps the best under a grand, but not the giant killer a few claim it to be. If I listened only to light jazz and classical maybe I could live with its tradeoffs, but I don't so I won't....
Personally, to my ears, no matter what tube I tried in the JD100 it couldn't touch my external dacs I had on hand to shootout with in terms of openness, midrange clarity, top end extension and air, bass articulation and transparency. The Jolida also gave me a headache with exteneded listening. I listen primarly to sultry, airy and angelic female vocalists and found the Jolida to do a poor job with them, which ultimately was the dealbreaker for me. It's a fine player with many good qualities, don't get me wrong, perhaps the best under a grand, but not the giant killer a few claim it to be. If I listened only to light jazz and classical maybe I could live with its tradeoffs, but I don't so I won't....